Fundamentals of Practical Environmentalism

About this book

Environmental decisions present themselves every day in forms large and small. As environmentalism has become more complex, with potentially far-reaching impacts, it seems to be outpacing our individual understanding of the basic issues.

This book challenges readers to integrate concern for the environment with the necessities of daily living and introduces practical environmentalism as a new approach to sustainable environmental progress. It presents a four-part framework that includes environmental degradation, resource conservation, economic progress, and personal benefit as the four pillars to address when attempting to act on behalf of the environment.

Contents

An Introduction to Practical Environmentalism and the Four Pillars A Short History of Environmentalism in the United States The Ethics of Environmentalism Issue-Driven Environmentalism Process-Based Environmentalism Regulatory Environmentalism Protest Environmentalism Perspective-Based Environmentalism The Nonbeliever The Live Earth Spaceship Earth Back to Nature Doomsday Anticonsumption Cornucopia The Confounding Factors Competing Objectives Uncertainty Measures of Success Fallacy of Prediction Assumption of Future States The Problem with Percentages History of Paranoia Crisis Mentality Environmental Degradation--The First Pillar Resource Conservation--The Second Pillar The "Human" Pillars of Economic Progress and Personal Benefit Economic Progress Personal Benefit Scoring with the Pillars--A Few Simple Examples to Illustrate the Method The Pillars in Daily Life The Pillars and the Really Big Issues More Really Big Issues--The Sacrificial Ones The Pillars and Global Warming Other Measures of Environmental Performance Carbon Footprint Carrying Capacity Life-Cycle Costing Government and Scientific Reports Green Accounting--ISEW (Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare) Simple Monetary Economics Some Final Thoughts Index Most chapters include references.

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Biography

Dr. Weldon is an engineer by training and experience. He holds bachelors and masters degrees in Mechanical Engineering and earned his doctorate in Environmental Engineering from the University of Iowa. He has spent much of his career working in industrial power plants. His experience includes working for large corporations in the pulp and paper, building products, and food products industries. He has also worked as a plant engineer for a Midwestern municipal electrical utility.

His current position is focused on energy conservation and environmental sustainability for a large food manufacturer.